


an old grudge

by yourlocalheartbreaker



Series: sumayyah writes drabbles! [6]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Child Death, F/M, Gen, Grown-Up Jack Hotchner, Home Invasion, Hotch Whump, Hurt Aaron Hotchner, Hurt No Comfort, Sad Aaron Hotchner, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:02:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29179179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlocalheartbreaker/pseuds/yourlocalheartbreaker
Summary: for the prompt: i have a fantastic idea:hotch is old and jack has a wife and two beautiful kids. one of the killers hotch caught years ago also had a child and that child has a grudge against hotch and to get back at hotch they kill jack and jack's entire family. hotch finds their bodies and a note saying it’s hotch’s fault. hotch is so full of despair that after a lifetime of loss this is the final straw. he shoots himself.the end.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner & Jack Hotchner, Jack Hotchner/Original Female Character(s)
Series: sumayyah writes drabbles! [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2142066
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	an old grudge

**Author's Note:**

> tw: major character deaths, suicide, death of children, home invasion

Hotch had always been afraid that his job would come back to haunt Jack and his future family, if he chose to have one. When Hotch met Jack’s girlfriend- so innocent, and pure, and kind- it took everything he had to not run from the room.

When they got engaged, he was sick. Jack found him, resting his head against the wall, and gave him a hug, before helping him to his feet and saying that everything was going to be fine. Nobody was at risk.

Jack’s wife loves Aaron. She looks at her father-in-law and sees a man that raised an amazing son, despite everything he had been through. She cares about him, so as he starts getting older, she starts finding reasons to just drop in for the fun of it.

Their son is named Henry Aaron Hotchner. Henry because he is the godfather and Aaron because then, no matter what happens, a piece of him will always live on. Their daughter is Jessica Haley Hotchner after the two strongest women Jack had ever known.

And for a while, everything is good. Then the notes start coming. At first, Jack and his wife assume it’s nothing, but then they start getting specific. Whoever sent them knows what time Henry was at the park and what Jessica was wearing on Sunday.

Jack isn’t going to let his dad find out about these, so he tries to get the original BAU to help. They’ve all moved on too, but this is Jack. So they come back for one last case. 

Aaron is unaware that any of this is going on. 

The team work out who it is, but not fast enough. The killer finds them. And just like Karl Arnold, he kills the children first. And then the mother. And then, finally, Jack. Jack, who wanted to give up but knew he had to be brave like his own mother and father. So he looks this killer in the eye and says that Aaron Hotchner will destroy him.

A note is delivered to Hotch minutes after. It contains his sons’ wedding ring. It reminds him of The Fox, and he knows something is wrong. Very wrong.

The team are on their way too. They don’t know Jack is already dead, his blood mixing with that of his family. All they know is that Henry Hotchner managed to phone Penelope before the line cut out.

Aaron gets to the house. The door is open. Even after all this time, there is a gun on his left leg. He sees his son, the perfect combination of him and Haley, with his eyes closed, mouth tilted up in a slight smirk as one last act of defiance.

The killer is gone, leaving a family dead in their home. Aaron drops to his knees, vision blurring as he tries and fails to save any of them. But they’re all gone. All of them.

And it’s all his fault.

He once made a vow that he would protect his family at all costs. He had broken it once when Haley died, and now that his grandchildren, his daughter-in-law and his son- oh god, his son- were all dead in their living room, the illusion that they may have just been sleeping ruined by the bullet holes in their heads.

He also made a vow that he would not stain his service weapons, even after he retired. 

Then he sees the note. And he wants to be sick. Because the note is not just a note. It’s an entire letter. And it contains everything the former BAU members had been looking at. All the pictures and surveillance that they had on them.

It is his fault because if he had been quicker, or if he had worked out that something was wrong- because he had known something was off- then perhaps it would be him lying in his blood, not the only family he had left.

There was no point in making vows that you could not keep.

He took the gun from his left leg. Even after all the years that had passed, nobody at Quantico had ever beaten his precision or skill with a gun. He knew what he was doing.

It was why it only took a single bullet.

And when the team got there, only moments after the final gunshot ran out, they sobbed.


End file.
